AG - agreed. The contract between two p explains a government issue of marriage that should be completely separate from whatever religious views here may be. This is all a vestige from earlier times when governments weren't stable and the church was maintaining marriage records as a form of census record. Those days are long gone.

Nora Espinoza is on the right track. But we need laws supporting even MORE traditional marriage. With same sex marriage, how do you know who pays the dowry? How many cattle is a man's hand in marriage even WORTH? And who decides which partner is the other's property?